Exploring the IR-radio correlation in massive galaxy clusters at the end of cosmic noon

TL;DR

This study examines how the environment of massive galaxy clusters at redshifts 1-2 influences the infrared-radio emission ratio of member galaxies, revealing modest differences compared to field galaxies, especially at lower redshifts.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the IR-radio correlation in cluster galaxies during the transition epoch at 1<z<2, highlighting environmental effects and the role of AGNs.

Findings

Modest difference in IR-radio correlation between cluster and field galaxies.

More significant differences observed in lower redshift clusters.

AGNs found to be radio quiet, not affecting the IR-radio correlation.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of the environment on the infrared and radio emission of cluster galaxies during the transition epoch at 1 < z < 2 when they first start to quench consistently in the majority of galaxy clusters. We considered a sample of 129 cluster member galaxies from 11 massive clusters at a confirmed redshift of 1.0-1.8 from the IRAC Shallow Cluster Survey (ISCS), the IRAC Distant Cluster Survey (IDCS), and new 3 GHz images from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). We calculated the IR-radio correlation slope parameter, q, in order to identify differences in the ratios of IR to radio of cluster galaxies and field galaxy comparison samples at different redshifts. Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) were identified and analyzed to search for any effect on the IR-radio correlation. The correlation parameter values were also compared by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with field galaxies. Our comparison of the IR-radio correlation in cluster galaxies to the control sample of field galaxies reveals a marginally to modestly significant difference in the correlation slope parameter at the ~2sigma-3sigma level. A split of the clusters into low-redshift (1 < z < 1.37) and high-redshift (1.37 < z < 1.8) bins indicates a more significant difference in the correlation parameter in the lower redshift cluster subsample, where widespread quenching begins. We find no difference in the IR-radio correlation between galaxies that host AGNs and non-active star-forming galaxies either. This suggests that our AGNs are overwhelmingly radio quiet and therefore do not affect the results we described above. We conclude that further investigations based on larger datasets are needed to constrain the impact of the cluster environment on the IR-radio correlation better.